Charles Caleb Colton Quotes - Page 19

• Truth can hardly be expected to adapt herself to the crooked policy and wily sinuosities of worldly affairs; for truth, like light, travels only in straight lines.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Truth, Light, Lines

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”

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• The soundest argument will produce no more conviction in an empty head than the most superficial declamation; as a feather and a guinea fall with equal velocity in a vacuum.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Fall, Vacuums, Velocity

  Charles Caleb Colton (1849). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words: Address--to Those who Think”, p.5

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• Some reputed saints that have been canonized ought to have been cannonaded.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Atheism, Saint, Ought

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.139

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• Alas! What is man? Whether he be deprived of that light which is from on high, of whether he discard it, a frail and trembling creature; standing on time, that bleak and narrow isthmus between two eternities, he sees nothing but impenetrable darkness on the one hand, and doubt, distrust, and conjecture, still more perplexing, on the other. Most gladly would he take an observation, as to whence he has come, or whither he is going; alas, he has not the means: his telescope is too dim, his compass too wavering, his plummet too short.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Mean, Men, Light

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.480

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• Man, if he compare himself with all that he can see, is at the zenith of power; but if he compare himself with all that he can conceive, he is at the nadir of weakness.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Weakness, Nadir

  Charles Caleb COLTON (1849). “L.P.”, p.421

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• Sloth, if it has prevented many crimes, has also smothered many virtues.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Sloth, Laziness, Virtue

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.173

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• It is a mistake, that a lust for power is the mark of a great mind; for even the weakest have been captivated by it; and for minds of the highest order, it has no charms.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Mistake, Power, Order

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.88

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• From its very inaction, idleness ultimately becomes the most active cause of evil; as a palsy is more to be dreaded than a fever. The Turks have a proverb which says that the devil tempts all other men, but that idle men tempt the devil.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Evil, Temptation

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.47

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• Our very best friends have a tincture of jealousy even in their friendship; and when they hear us praised by others, will ascribe it to sinister and interested motives if they can.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Lost Friendship, Sinister, Motive

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.72

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• No men deserve the title of infidels so little as those to whom it has been usually applied; let any of those who renounce Christianity, write fairly down in a book all the absurdities that they believe instead of it, and they will find that it requires more faith to reject Christianity than to embrace it.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Believe, Book, Writing

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”

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• Falsehood is never so successful as when she baits her hook with truth, and no opinions so fatally mislead us as those that are not wholly wrong, as no watches so effectively deceive the wearer as those that are sometimes right.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Successful, Mislead Us, Bait

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• Habit will reconcile us to everything but change

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Habit, Reconcile

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.260

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• Memory is the friend of wit, but the treacherous ally of invention; there are many books that owe their success to two things; good memory of those who write them, and the bad memory of those who read them

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Memories, Book, Writing

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.160

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• It is doubtful whether mankind are most indebted to those who like Bacon and Butler dig the gold from the mine of literature, or to those who, like Paley, purify it, stamp it, fix its real value, and give it currency and utility

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Real, Giving, Gold

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• The whole family of pride and ignorance are incestuous, and mutually beget each other

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Ignorance, Pride, Whole Family

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.190

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• The greatest genius is never so great as when it is chastised and subdued by the highest reason.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Genius, Reason, Highest

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.24

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• Genius, in one respect, is like gold; numbers of persons are constantly writing about both, who have neither.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Writing, Numbers, Gold

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.395

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• It is not until we have passed through the furnace that we are made to know how much dross there is in our composition.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Gratitude, Made, Dross

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• It is a common observation that any fool can get money; but they are not wise that think so.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Wise, Money, Thinking

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.422

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• Forgiveness, that noblest of all self-denial, is a virtue which he alone who can practise in himself can willingly believe in another.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Believe, Self, Denial

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.101

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• In civil jurisprudence it too often happens that there is so much law, that there is no room for justice, and that the claimant expires of wrong in the midst of right, as mariners die of thirst in the midst of water.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Law, Justice, Water

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.303

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• It is with disease of the mind, as with those of the body; we are half dead before we understand our disorder, and half cured when we do.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Health, Medicine, Understanding

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.424

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• No man can promise himself even fifty years of life, but any man may, if he please, live in the proportion of fifty years in forty-let him rise early, that he may have the day before him, and let him make the most of the day, by determining to expend it on two sorts of acquaintance only-those by whom something may be got, and those from whom something maybe learned.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Years, Two

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.347

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• Faults of the head are punished in this world, those of the heart in another; but as most of our vices are compound, so also is their punishment.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Heart, Punishment, Vices

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.189

  7 Copy quote

• He that sympathizes in all the happiness of others, perhaps himself enjoys the safest happiness.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Enjoy

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.33

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